Phoenix home prices fell in Nov. for 4th month

by Ryan Randazzo - Dec. 23, 2010 12:00 AMArizona Business Gazette

Home prices in the Phoenix area slipped in November for the fourth month in a row, but one expert from Arizona State University said the second dip the market is experiencing won't be as bad as the first.

November prices fell 7 percent, from November 2009, to $122,300, according to the Arizona State University-Repeat Sales Index produced by ASU real-estate professor Karl Guntermann.

The four consecutive months of worsening repeat-sale indexes follow four months when prices either increased or held steady from the year before, peaking in May with a 3 percent increase from May the previous year.

Guntermann said he believes the worst is over but that the market will take a long time to recover.

"The recent improvement in Phoenix employment is an important step in getting the housing market back to normal, but the process will continue through 2011 and beyond," Guntermann said in his report. "Markets don't move smoothly in one direction, so perhaps it should not be surprising that another period of price declines has begun."

This year brought some stability after three years of housing declines.

"With the economy gradually recovering and the foreclosure problem past its peak, the odds are good that the housing market will end 2011 a lot better than it will be beginning it," he said.

Guntermann's index is based on repeat sales, comparing prices of a single property against itself at different points in time.